You Are What You Eat

I know it has been some time since I last wrote to you, but life and war sometimes get in the way. I hold no excuse that will be acceptable. Therefore, I will get right into it. I have never read the books featuring Hannibal Lecter, the refined serial killer with a taste for human organs, but I have watched the movies Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal. Despite the gruesome nature of the character, there is something about Hannibal that fascinates.

When I first heard they were making a television series based on the Hannibal Lecter character that featured him as psychologist to a serial killer profiler working for the FBI, I was intrigued. The actor playing Hannibal this time is Mads Mikkelson and he does a terrific job of playing creepy and yet human. His accent is sometimes difficult to understand but I usually can get what he means and actually find it sort of charming in a way. The actor playing Will Graham, the profiler, is very adept at playing an unstable and slightly broken man haunted by his talent for getting inside the minds of serial killers. The rest of the cast is winning as well.

I will warn you, the show is not for someone with a weak constitution or aversion to gory violence. Hannibal’s cannibalism is played with a certain black humor that not everyone will enjoy. Let’s just say that Hannibal loves to invite the various supporting cast to dinner and the main course is always suspicious.

The writing in the show is extremely well done. The characters are all well-defined and the interactions are compelling. The serial killer of the week format is starting to wear a little thin though and I hope they change things up before it feels stale. There are only so many bizarre killings I can take before the need to one-up the previous ones makes everything unbelievable and thus unvested. For now, I am happy to be on the edge of my seat during each show and eyes partially under the covers with each oncoming horrific scene. We all know that the budding friendship between Will and Hannibal will be undone at some point and that Hannibal will be caught as the monster he is. Half the fun is watching the happenings with such foreknowledge in mind.